Prince George's County questions and responses, 2005

(fl/t л-у Лч^ОУСг 1. A dire need to have commercial development around our Metro train stations. Presently, there are few commercial office buildings surrounding our metro stations. As a result, we miss out on the opportunity to have people from surrounding jurisdictions to come to our county to work and spend their money in retail, restaurants, and service oriented businesses. More importantly, Prince George’s County loses out on its aim to be an employment center. We absolutely agree with this goal, and we have worked with the County to develop transit station area development visions, strategies, and plans that support commercial and office development (e.g., at New Carrollton and Prince George’s Plaza) where that makes sense, and residential and retail development where that makes sense. One of the greatest opportunity areas for commercial development in the County is at New Carrollton. Working with Metro and local government, MDOT funded the development of a strategy to capitalize on the area’s locational assets. This area could be Prince George’s County’s answer to Crystal City in Virginia (see http://www.mncppc.org/cpd/PDFs/New Carrollton TOD Studv.pdf The key need at New Carrollton is a setting that will persuade Class A office tenants to see the location as a real asset. That means sending tangible signals to the market that the area’s tone will be changed. MDOT proposes the following option as a practical next step at New Carrollton: MDOT will work with key stakeholders groups (including the County Executive’s office) to prepare a phased, 20-year infrastructure investment strategy that's linked to (A) a phased real estate development strategy and (B) the availability of funding resources over time. The funding resources considered could be a combination of many funds - locally generated tax increment financing, special assessments, impact fees, property transfer . taxes, sales tax surcharges, etc. Another possible opportunity for success is through establishing partnerships in development strategies. County elected officials recently held up Metro’s joint development process at Largo Town Center because they wanted a more complete strategy for commercial development there, and wanted to make sure decisions made by WMATA wouldn’t cut off bigger opportunities on nearby properties owned by others. MDOT could assist by preparing a station area development strategy at Largo as it did for West Hyattsville, New Carrollton, and State Center. Finally, any potentially new asset to the area may be David Winstead’s recent elevation to a commissioner role at the federal General Services Administration. He might be helpful in bringing quality federal tenants to station area properties in Prince George’s County.